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AN 



ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

JEFFERSON COUNTY 

AG-RICUL,TUMALr SOCIETY, 

15th September, 1829, 
AT WATERTOWN, N. Y. 



BY J. IB RAY BE CHAUMONT, 

PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. 



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" THE PLOUGH IS OF NO PARTY." 

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TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED, 

Notes, and an Abstract of the Report of the 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OP THE SOCIETY. 

1829. 






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ADDRESS. 



At the last general meeting of our Agricultural Society, 
having been requested to supply the absence of tbe person who 
was to deliver you this day an Address, I bave accepted the in- 
vitation, encouraged by your constant partiality for my feeble 
efforts, and by that indulgence you have heretofore extended to 
me on all occasions. On this particular one, an additional en- 
couragement has been given to me, in considering tbe merits 
and qualifications of our Viewing Committee, whose Report, 
(Note A.) will excuse me from treating on many subjects, that 
they are much more conversant with, and to which they will 
certainly do better justice. I am the more gratified, that it 
leaves me a latitude on subjects that require from me extensive 
developments to be sufficiently understood. 

We have been convinced, by various experiments, that 
hemp grows well here, and that there is not the smallest doubt 
entertained, that we have in this county a sufficient proportion of 
first rate land, for the raising of that precious plant. However, 
the operation of rotting here, as in many other countries, was the 
occasion of the preference being given to other cultures. But 
the successful and repeated experiments of the newly invented 
machine, to prepare hemp without rotting, must give us suffi- 
cient encouragement to cultivate it in the manner and soils suita- 
ble to its growth. A machine, similar to that which has had 
great success in Saratoga County the preceding year, is going 
to be established immediately at Juhelville, near this village. 
The price which the owner of this machine is asking to prepare 
the hemp for market, leaves to the grower of it a great benefit. 
It is not uncommon for one acre to yield half a ton, which will 
sell for $100. 



The cultivation of the mulberry tree would undoubtedly be a 
source of great profit to this county, as regards the manufacture 
of silk. In the New-England Farmer, a very valuable periodi- 
cal work, it is stated that four acres of ground, planted in mul- 
berry trees near Boston, afforded food in one season, for the 
support of as many silk-worms as produced 420 lbs. of silk, 
worth $3.20 per pound, amounting to $1470. All the labor 
necessary in producing this result, was performed by four girls, 
whose attention was but for a small portion of the year. 

In a treatise upon the mulberry, the author says, " a full 
grown white mulberry tree under proper cultivation, will yield 
300 lbs. of leaves." He calculates 48 trees to an acre, and as- 
sumes only 200 lbs. as the average produce of each tree, which 
at $1 per quintal, will give $90 of yearly income for a single 
acre of land. Thus 48 trees will produce 9600 lbs. of leaves, 
furnishing a supply of food for 384,000 worms. Taking the 
ratio of 3000 worms to a pound of silk, the 384,000 worms will 
yield 128 lbs. of silk, which, at the low price of $4, will produce 
$512. Deduct for wages and contingent expenses $125, for 
winding the silk from the cocoons $125, and there will remain 
$262, which may be considered, says the author, as the pro- 
duce of a single acre of land. 

Such a produce is so great, that 1 would not recommend an 
implicit confidence in it ; but was it reduced in our estimation, 
to one-tenth part of its amount, there will be yet still sufficient 
encouragement. 

Two small nurseries of mulberries have been planted in this 
vicinity, which will greatly facilitate their dissemination in this 
section of our country. 

The improvement to be yet made in the breed of our cattle, 
and it is a subject so familiar to the farmers, that it is sufficient 
to tell those who have been stationary at home, that the late im- 
portations from Europe, of some of their best breed, have proved 
such an advantageous addition to the stock generally spread in 
the United States, that it would be highly our interest to take 
proper measures to introduce some of this improved breed into 
our county. We should feel encouraged immediately to take the 
necessary steps, when we attend to the immense benefits which 
we have received from the amelioration of our breed of 
horses. (B.) 



I wish much to call your serious attention towards the cul- 
tivation of the vine, as I am now convinced that the moment is 
come, when we can undertake this new kind of industry, with 
a reasonable hope to be repaid in due time for our labors, and 
to replace by a wholesome and agreeable drink, the most per- 
nicious and most dangerous use of spirituous liquors, which no 
doubt, will be more effectually and permanently prevented by 
the manufacture of wine in this country, than by any other mea- 
sure that can be adopted. 

This appeal to your attention, and if convinced, to your ex- 
ertions, will surprise, no doubt, some of you, who may have heard 
me hold a very different language in my first address to this 
Agricultural Society, in 1817. (C.) 

I have under my eyes an important communication published 
in the New-England Farmer. An editorial article, under the 
date of the 14th of last month, upon the cultivation of the vine 
in this country, gives some of the facts and arguments which 
have been advanced on the question, whether vines of foreign 
origin can be raised to advantage in the United States 1 The 
quotations he makes there, are certainly very unfavorable to 
that question, and even to the making of the wine ; and I ap- 
pear to be almost the only one who has spoken in favor of 
European vines cultivated in this country. Mentio is made 
by the editor, of some remarks I addressed to this Society in 
1827, where in recommending to you the cultivation of the vine, 
I said " I should be sorry if any one should conclude that wine 
" could be made now with advantage in the United States." 
" We have some reasons for considering ourselves as not discou- 
" ragingly far from that desired epocha. But while labor will 
" not have fallen much lower than it is," &,c. 

The New-England Farmer gives afterwards, various state- 
ments, which he has extracted among several others which have 
been made by the respectable editor of the New- York Horticul- 
tural Repository. One gentleman, R. W. Withers, writes that 
he last year travelled in sixteen of the States, and as far as 
New Orleans ; that he found in every place where the attempt 
had been made to cultivate foreign vines, it had been unsuccess- 
ful. Even at Vevay, the Swiss colony in Indiana, where he 
does not recollect to have seen a single European vine, except 
a very diminutive one in Mr. Demur's garden, who told him 



6" 

that " they had long since been compelled to abandon their 
" cultivation." He quotes a more desponding fact, that of the 
French emigrants in Green County, Alabama, where Congress 
had given them lands for the express purpose, and on condition 
of cultivating the vine. " The experiment was fairly tried with 
" a great many varieties, and under the care of professed vigno- 
" rons, but never in one instance have they been repaid for 
" their labor and expense. Only one has given hopes of suc- 
" cess, but Mr. Withers declares it evidently a native." This 
enterprising gentleman is " determined," says he, " to succeed 
in making good wine, and making it profitably." The editor 
of the New- York Horticultural Repository, in publishing those 
facts, and many more equally desponding, as to the cultivation 
of the foreign vines, states at the same time, that his object is 
merely to elicit information from others on this very important 
and interesting subject. 

The above statements, coupled with the high price of labor first 
alluded to by me, would no doubt be sufficient to discourage us 
entirely from any further attempts to cultivate the vine, at least 
the foreign, for the purpose of making wine. I have offered 
you, gentlemen, the dark side of the picture. Let us turn a 
new leaf, and I hope that on it, you will see a brighter prospect. 

All the inquiries made, prove that the failures of th different 
attempts in raising the foreign vines, are due principally to mil- 
dew or carbon, which in a few years unvariably destroys them, 
or prevents their bearing fruit, while the native are not materi- 
ally affected by it. Now it is an avered fact, that the foreign 
vines which have been cultivated in this county, have not been 
subject to this destructive disease, and we have under our eyes 
evident proofs that we can raise here with success, several spe- 
cies of foreign vines, of which wine can be made, besides ano- 
ther kind very good for the table, the Chasselas blanc. The 
vine called black Morillon of the Cape of Good Hope, was cul- 
tivated with success near Philadelphia, by Jacob Hepp, an ex- 
perienced gardener, who has cultivated the vine, not only in the 
United States, but in his own native country, Germany, where 
his father had a vineyard of 12 acres, and in a temperature 
pretty similar to ours. When he came from Philadelphia into 
this county about six years ago, he brought with him one of the 
roots of the Morillon, but it had been so much injured in taking 



it from a frozen ground, that Mr. Hepp did not consider it much 
more than a cutting. However, it has produced for three years 
past, a good crop of fine grapes, which ripened in the month 
of September and beginning of October. lie counted the other 
day 251 bunches of grapes upon it, and he reckons they will 
weigh at least 62 lbs. But he justly observes, that this produce 
would have been a great deal more, if he had not taken many 
layers from that same vine. One of them which is now three 
years old, has on it 93 fine bunches of grapes. Mr. Hepp says 
that this vine shows more rapid growth and finer production, 
than the same kind of vine he and others cultivated near Phila- 
delphia. Opposite to the city, on the Jersey shore, Mr. Cooper 
has made wine of the same grape. 

Another kind of Vine, cultivated with success in this coun- 
ty, and particularly adapted to the making of the Wine, is the 
Morillon noir hatif, the kind to which Virgil alludes, (Geor. 11,) 
and which Pliny (Historia Naturalis) calls Trifera. You have 
before you grapes produced by this Vine, which has been ex- 
amined by a great many in the garden of Le Raysville. These 
Grapes were ripe at the end of last month, and were picked a 
few days ago. It must be observed that the Vine stands nearly 
in the middle of the Garden, and has been trained facing to the 
north, along a rough trellis, an unfavorable circumstance in this 
adverse season, for the ripening of fruits. Means might have 
been employed to have the Grapes ripen much sooner. The 
operation of girdling, for instance, would have hastened it from 
15 to 29 days. But the principal attention has been turned to- 
wards the production of a great deal of wood, to multiply as 
much as possible, this valuable Vine. Several roots coming from 
it, are already growing successfully. In tasting this Grape, you 
will find it juicy and sweet. 

The Morillon hatif is highly recommended by several able 
writers, particularly by Mr. Thiebaut de Berneaud, Editor of 
the Paris Journal of Agriculture, and who has been himself a 
powerful contributor to the extension of that rich species of cul- 
ture, in climates where it was thought formerly quite inadmissi- 
ble, as Belgic, &c. 

In that valuable book, translated lately by the daughter of 
the learned Dr. Felix Pascalis, after having said that the berry 
of the Morillon hatif, Ins "all the qualities requisite for furnish- 



ing a very fine wine." The author adds, "we would invite the 
attention of cultivators of the vine, to this species, recommend- 
ing a trial of it in situations where it is difficult to ripen the 
grape." 

We have* tried to introduce into this county, a multiplicity of 
other sorts of vines imported from Europe. I had bad luck with 
the first importation about two years ago, as the gardener to 
whom their culture was confided, during a long absence I 
made, suffered these young plants to be smothered by the weeds, 
which completely surrounded and covered them. Some of my 
neighbours however, to whom we had given a parcel, had more 
success. The importation of last year is quite encouraging, 
though by some delays in the arrivals of the vines, they were 
planted too late, in May and June. 

The}- are from different parts of France, Champaign, Burgun- 
dy, <fcc. and of Switzerland. Many valuable varieties were sent 
from the neighborhood of Geneva, and notably the vine of Ma- 
deira, cultivated in Switzerland, and therefore better adapted to 
our temperature. The growth of these different vines, can be 
witnessed by every one curious to examine them, as 1200 of 
them are adjoining the public road, in a field to the north of the 
village of Lc Raysville; more than one-half are doing remarkably 
well, and are very promising. Some of them have grapes. They 
were covered last winter with small branches of hemlock only. 

The production of grapes the first year after being planted, 
has been considered by some as an accident, and rather to be la- 
mented by the owners of such vines, which they say will not 
bear another year. But several visiters have noticed in the Le 
Raysville garden, two kinds of vine grapes, which were sent 
from Montreal at the end of fall, and planted the succeeding 
spring, had given some small bunches of grapes, which came 
to good maturity last fall. The same vines have produced a 
greater proportion of bunches this year, larger and riper, in the 
present month. They are foreign grapes, and suitable for the 
making of wine. 

I would recommend covering some way or other, the young 
plants, the first and second year, and I have even used that pre- 
caution for old ones. Mr. Ilepp, however, had some of his but 
partially covered, and some not covered at all, last winter, which 
was rather a severe one for the plants in general, yet he finds no 



difference, and it has affected neither the wood, nor the produc- 
tion of the fruit. (D.) 

Will I be told, that before we make our mind up on this im- 
portant subject, and make some preparations for the more ex- 
tensive culture of the vine, we must wait some years yet to see 
the result of the cultivation of those new imported vines ? I 
think not. The kinds which succeed so well with us, both fo- 
reign and native grapes, are sufficient, if we adopt the follow- 
ing method which I shall briefly relate to you, to ensure success 
in the cultivation of the vine, and consequently to enable us 
to obtain the deserved reward of our labors. But to prompt you 
to begin sooner this meritorious task, permit me, gentlemen, 
to add here, that it is not only the facts that are under our eyes 
which must encourage us, but the conviction that our position 
and our climate are peculiarly favorable to the cultivation of 
the vine. I do not speak of the soil — nothing more common 
than to find such as suit the vines — that which we would call 
here, an indifferent soil. 

It is to the climate that your vines owe the inestimable ad- 
vantage to be exempt from the greatest diseases which destroys 
the foreign vines in many parts of the United States ; and for 
this advantageous climate we are indebted, not so much, per- 
haps, to that range of mountains, which to the south-east of us, 
protect us from the baneful humidity with which the winds 
blowing from the coasts of Newfoundland are impregnated, as 
to our relative situation with Lake Ontario. The west winds 
which prevail here the greatest part of the year, passing before 
they reach us, upon this vast mass of water, at times refresh our 
climate, at other times moderate it, and most always to our 
benefit. (E.) The vine dreads equally a great humidity, or 
a great drought. We are exempt from both. The fogs 
are so rare in this part, that compared with other countries I 
have visited, and I have travelled a good deal, I would say 
there is none: so I would say of hail storms, which are so fatal 
to vineyards, and in some of the most favored countries in 
Europe as to climate, have in some particular years, swept 
away the whole crops of thousands of acres of vineyards. The 
blight is another most destructive disease of the vine. It is 
commonly occasioned by a continued rain during the flower- 

B 



10 

ing. It is not uncommon in the great vine countries of Eufope 
during that season, to have rains which last without interrup- 
tion, or the presence of the sun, for several weeks, Here 
nothing is more rare than a storm of rain which lasts more than 
three days, and the powerful and benign influence of the great 
renovator of plants is not withdrawn from them a longer time. 
But the cold? We have certainly enough of that in our win- 
ters, but are not the worse of it. Vegetation starting later, 
vines are less subject to be injured by the late frosts- of the 
spring; and we have always sun enough to bring the grains 
and the plants we cultivate to a good maturity. Witness the 
corn which has been cultivated to a great extent and complete 
success, since the origin of our Society, which counts nearly 
twelve years, during which we have had an opportunity to ob- 
serve it all through this county. 

I must lament to have been so diffuse in what precedes, 
while the most important remains untold. I will try to be more 
concise, while you bestow me somewhat longer a patient ear. 

My great objection, and J must say, my only real one, to the 
cultivation of the vine, with a view to making wine, is at last 
removed by the happy result of many inquiries I have made in 
Europe and here, to many persons who had followed, and exa- 
mined attentively, a method very different from the one which 
is uniformly adopted in all the vineyards of the middle and 
northern parts of France, where I lived and observed them at- 
tentively. There nine-tenths of the work, at least, is made by 
the hand of man, and part of it so painful and hurtful to the 
body, as to injure materially the workmen, while in many parts 
of the south, and where very good wines too are made, the most 
painful and more laborious part of the cultivation of the vine is 
achieved by the work of horses and cattle. The difference is 
such in favor of this country, between the two methods, that I 
do not hesitate to say, that every thing considered and calcu- 
lated, this last method will not occasion you more expense in 
th ; s country than in France, to produce the same quantity of 
wine that would be obtained by the other method, which would 
c<»t you nearly three times as much as in France. This result 
is 10I only occasioned by the difference of the price of the labor 
of men in the two countries, winch, in the preferred method, 



11 

ts substituted for the greatest part, by the work of animals, that 
do not cost more here than in France, and which can be fed 
cheaper ; but because this preferred method owes principally its 
greater produce, to its having a much greater proportion of land 
consecrated to the same quantity of vine stocks, and that the 
land is considerably cheaper here than in France. Mr. Thie- 
baud, in comparing the two methods, to prove the immense ad- 
vantage of the one he recommends, does not calculate the pro- 
duce of an acre, but of the number of stocks. He says, " that 
" 2000 stocks trained according to this method, will produce 
" yearly, 26,000 gallons of wine; while on the other hand, 6000 
" stocks, trained in the ordinary way, produce in common sea- 
" sons, only from 780 to 1300 gallons, and in the very best sea- 
" sons only about 2600 gallons." The enormous difference of 
thirty to one. Mr. Thiebaud adds that the increase in quality 
also is considerable. 

Considering the comparative value of the land we would con- 
secrate here to the cultivation of the vine, with the same nature 
of land in Europe, and that there is a difference of at least nine- 
tenths in our favor, [ would propose an altogether different and 
more economical method in the first planting of the vine- I 
would set the roots and the wooden posts twelve feet apart, (F.) 
instead of eight feet, as recommended by Mr. Thiebaud, leav- 
ing as he does, the space between for the cultivation of grain or 
other productions, as preferred by the farmer. The trenches, two 
feet broad and one foot deep, should be made with the plough 
and the scraper, which can be equally useful and convenient in 
covering the roots. Some alteration and economy could be 
made in the hand labor, when we take in consideration, that a 
considerable part of it can be done by children during the va<- 
cancies. This interesting portion of the American population 
is more numerous, comparatively to the other portion, than in 
Europe, and generally better educated, and more dexterous 
than those of the same age on the other side of the water. No 
■more details are needed to give such an idea and knowledge of 
this culture, as may be required for the present moment and 
purpose. Every necessary instruction on this subject, will un- 
doubtedly be afforded in the works of Messrs. Prince and Par- 
imentier, now in or preparing for the press. 



12 

An econoinical way, and perhaps the best for the generality 
of us, to be prepared to cultivate the vine, would be in the fol- 
lowing months to take cuttings from the native vines grow- 
ing almost every where in this county, and to plant them in a 
small nursery; and when they shall have fairly taken root and 
become sufficiently vigorous, to graft upon their roots, such of 
the foreign vines as may have proved preferable to others for 
our soil and climate, or of the native vines as may answer a? 
good or a better purpose. You might at the same time like to 
cultivate a few of the foreign grapes. It will be in your power. 
Out of the 1200 vine roots mentioned above, 1000 arc ]sow 
given by the proprietor to this Agricultural Society, and will be 
disposed of as they may think proper. 

The report of our viewing committee, you will find, very 
encouraging, and I think it will resound very much to the 
honor of the inhabitants of this county, when any one will con- 
sider the most extraordinary events and unexpected difficulties 
which we have bad to encounter, and which it was not in the 
reach of the human mind to foresee, when the majority of you 
came to settle in this county. You were not preferably attracted 
to it merely by the goodness and fertility of the soil, .adapted, it 
is true, to every kind of grain, nor by the salubrity of the cli- 
mate, which could only be ascertained by experience and length 
of time — neither by the abundance of wild game and fish, which 
might be vastly diminished by the settlement of the country : 
No; your marked preference was given to this county, more 
particularly by its superiority over all other new countries in the 
advantages of market, and in the greatest facility for communi- 
cation with the old settled parts of this state, and of neighbour- 
ing ones from which most of you were coming. You consi- 
dered too in your choice, that being so much nearer those states 
which yearly furnish thousands and thousands of emigrants, 
this favored spot adopted by you, would much sooner than any 
other new country, be filled and so thickly settled, as to ensure 
to the natural advantages you were finding here, the accession 
of ahnost all those acquired ones which the old country you had 
left had made you enjoy. By land, none of the western coun- 
ties, not even the Genessee, could be equal to you for the ad- 
vantages of market; and the difference then of the price of their 
wheat with our's at home, proved the difference of facilities of 



13 

transport to Albany; and if we preferred the Canada market, 
our comparative facilities of transportation were still greater, 
either by water or by land. 

To these considerations, we no doubt owed principally the 
great and rapid success of our first settlements in this Black Ri- 
ver country, and nothing but a succession of the most unfore- 
seen and adverse events, could have prevented us from realising 
our well grounded hopes and calculations. The unexpected 
acquisition of Louisiana, would not have been a detriment to 
our settlement, any more than the vast and fertile territories ad- 
joining to it, already possessed by the United States ; for we would 
have attained all our growth and consequence, before they could 
have attracted the attention of the emigrants of the eastern 
states. But steam-boats are invented, and unexpected and un- 
natural effects are produced, equal almost to the prolongation of 
the ocean, 1000 miles in the midst of these counties. Yet such 
was the combined advantage of being nearer the great nurse- 
ries of emigrants of the east, and at the same time of the great 
markets, that the northern part of the state of New- York, so 
situated, had for a long time the preference by those emigrants, 
upon the fine and fertile lands of the west of the state. 

The fatal effect of the steam-boats was great and threaten- 
ing, but by the proper management, and activity of the land- 
holders of the north, the choice of the emigrants was at least di- 
vided. Those emigrants had yet between them and the lands 
on the Ohio, and the Mississippi, a long and expensive land 
journey. 

The great difficulty is overcome, and the completion of the 
chain of communication is effected, to the great astonishment of 
most every one, by the scheme of the great canal, which in fact, 
was to unite the Ohio with the North River — New-Orleans with 
New-York. 

The consequences of these three great unexpected events, al- 
most impossible to foresee, as well as to counteract, were by a 
singular fatality, followed or accompanied by three others, less 
extraordinary it is true, but far beyond the powers of the land- 
holders or settlers to oppose or change in the least degree, 
though they could not but see in this unexampled and dreadful 
combination, almost the annihilation of their former and reason- 
able calculations. These were, 



14 

1. The rapid, and for a while, constant fall of the value of 
the chief produce of our counties. It was so great, that the 
price of wheat, which in the end of 1816, and beginning of 1817, 
commanded $2, was reduced to four shillings, and remained 
nearly so, till these last 12 months, a price about two-thirds 
less than it had been in our country, since the beginning of its 
settlement. 

2. The resolutions of Congress, at that time and since, to 
sell their lands much lower than before, instead of increasing the 
price as it could be expected, at least of those which by the new 
facilities of communication were rendered so much more 
valuable. 

3. The English Government prompted by their jealousies, of 
the increasing prosperity of the northern frontiers of their rival 
neighbours, enacted such laws as amounted in fact, to prevent- 
ing not only the exportation into Canada, of the produce of the Uni- 
ted States, but even the navigation of the St. Lawrence within their 
limits ; thus deprivingthe counties of St.Lawrence, Jefferson, and 
Lewis, of the last resource which was left to them for carryingto 
market their produce, which was already too much reduced to 
bear the expenses of a land carriage. Many thought that this coun- 
ty could not resist the tremendous and constant attacks upon its 
anticipated prosperity. Indeed a number of its inhabitants, se- 
duced by the alluring attraction of the new states, emigrated 
from among us. Happily for us, however, far the greatest part 
of them, I might say, almost all that had means to come back, 
proved yet a preference for the remaining advantages of this 
their first choice. With you, constant and happy inhabitants of 
this county, they have withstood the storm, and it affords me a 
great consolation to add, became conquerors of the greatest dif- 
ficulties. Why should I not call you so, when we behold the 
great improvements which are to be seen and admired in a con- 
siderable part of this county. 

I would miss my principal object, in retracing, as I have just 
done, the difficulties we had to encounter for these several years 
past, if I was not to notice how they have been chiefly conquered 
or neutralized, and then point briefly what we can do by our- 
selves, or obtain by the just support of the government, to make 
us realise the well grounded and reasonable expectations we ge- 
nerally had, in coining into this fine portion of the state. 



15 

The vast sum paid for the improvement and the multiplicity 
of our roads, to go to market, have partly remedied the disad- 
vantages we felt from the construction of the great canal, and it 
is chiefly in the winter, when the water communications are in- 
terrupted by ice, that we feel, and ever will feel the benefit of 
these roads. But above that, the completion of the canal of Os- 
wego, will this very season, offer to the western and southern 
parts of our county, advantages as great as have been reaped for 
many years, by several of the counties along the great canal. 
But the vast north-eastern part of this county, and of the county 
of Lewis, reduced almost to the precarious market of Canada, 
requires that the state grant them a canal, without which, their 
natural advantages will be most comparatively a blank to its in- 
habitants, and to the state, and of course to this part of ourcoun- 
try, whose well understood interest, is united intimately with 
the other less favoured. 

The effects of the low price of landed property must now be 
set aside, and while we must be satisfied that they have not 
done more hurt to the commimity, we are to consider chiefly the 
good effect this continued low price will now produce, with good 
management, upon the future settlement, and the increasing pop- 
ulation of this county, and the adjoining ones, in which we take 
a warm interest, and where as well as in this county, the prices of 
improved and wild lands, combined with their quality and situa- 
tion, will insure shortly, a new increase of population and im- 
provements. 

We do not find, it is true, a similar compensation in the pro- 
longed continuation of the low price of our grains, and at the 
same time that we allow that it has had one great salutary effect, 
to render us more industrious and economical, we think that a 
rise in the price of grain, is needed for the encouragement of the 
possessors of improved farms. But we must feel more the ne- 
cessity of varying our chances, by introducing in the manage- 
ment of our farms, some new culture, as I have recommended in 
the beginning of this address, and by paying more attention to 
the raising of our cattle, and the improvement of their breed. 
I must too fix your attention to the encouragement which is of- 
fered by the present price of potash. At no time wild land 
could be cleared so cheap by the laborer. Never could he buy 



16 

Ins provisions, neither his clothes, nor the implements necessary 
for his work, near so cheap as he can now ; and he will however 
obtain a price tor potash, which is as high, upon an average, as 
it has been during those years, when every other article was in- 
finitely higher than it is now. 

Having thus long intruded upon you, gentlemen, I feel the 
necessity of concluding — I only ask leave for one word more. 

Amongst the fine display of our domestic manufactures, 
every one who has seen this continued proof of our increasing 
industry, must have particularly noticed the elegant works of 
our fair country-women. Their kind and successful efforts, de- 
serve highly the tribute of our sincere gratitude, and constant ad- 
miration. Let us ask from them the favor to join their voices in 
melody, to our humble supplications to the Supreme Being, that 
he may deign to bestow his blessings on our Society. 



NOTES 



REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING PAGES. 



[NOTE A.] 

The Jefferson County Agricultural Society, held their annual Cattle Show 
and Fair in this village, on the 15th inst. The day was very fine, and the 
turn out of the farmers was unusuallj large. There was & very large and 
choice display of stock. The young stock showed marks of the latest and 
best improvements. The working oxen were more numerous, and of better 
quality than have usually been exhibited on such occasions. The domestic 
manufactures were of a superior quality, but the competition not so great as 
usual, except carpetiDg, where there was a very laudable zeal shown, and 
much of which would have done no discredit to the manufactories of Europe. 
The ploughing match was unusually interesting, from the number of competi- 
tors, with both horses and oxen. Fifteen teams were entered, and the com- 
mittee state that the ploughing was very good, shewing an evident improve- 
ment in tools, teams and ploughmen. 

The Jefferson County Agricultural Society, stands alone in this state. It 
is a proud reflection to her farmers to have it in their power, with an age of 
only about thirty years, to give example to counties that count centuries. 

Extract of the Report of the Viewing Committee of the Jeff- 
erson County Agricultural Society. 

To those of us who occasionally, by business or otherwise are called into 
different parts of the county, the progress in improvements is observed and 
often made the subject of pleasing remark. To form a correct estimate of its 
actual advancement, a more minute examination becomes necessary. Actu- 
al inspection and personal intercourse with the inhabitants of the county, fur- 
uish the best means to attain this object. It is with this view the society have 
adopted the system of constituting a committee, who shall inspect the situa- 
tion of the agricultural interests of the county, and communicate the same, in 
order that the different parts may be benefited by the improvements of their 
neighbors, or share their errors in case of failure in any attempted experi- 
ment at improvement. Communications of this kind, may also have the ef- 
fect of circulating more extensively the advantages of our country in point of 
soil, location, &z.c. which frequently produces the most favorable result. 

Al! men are subject to individual and local partialities, and when reading 
or hearing men speak on subjects relating to themselves or their own country, 
we are apt to remark that their statements are to be taken with some grain 
of allowance. In our report we do not claim to be exempt from this remark ; 
we have most of us been long residents of this county, our all is embarked 
here, and what remains to us of mortal existence will probably be spent here. 

C 



IS 

The season having bsen fiue, we found the general appearance of the 
country unusually verdant, and crops of every kind very abundant. A kind 
providence had extended an equal hand in aid of the exertions of man, and 
wheat, rye, corn, and every fruit of the earth, were good of their kind. 
Health, the greatest human blessing prevailed generally, and man was ena- 
bled in all his strength to secure for himself the rich harvest. As to our local 
situation there is an evident improvement, and the facilities in carrying our 
produce to market, are daily becoming better. A direct water communica- 
tion to New-York, by way of Oswego, is complete and in full operation. The 
enterprising citizens of Brownville have extended this navigation into the in- 
terior to their village, by means of improvemeats at the mouth of the Black 
River, and have- constructed a Steam Boat to add to its facilities. Great ex- 
ertions are making by our enterprising citizens in the east part of the county., 
in conjunction with their neighbors in the county of Lewis, to connect the 
navigation ofthe Black River, from the Long Falls to the High Falls, with 
the Erie Canal, by a canal to Rome. Last, but not least, we still enjoy, to a 
great extent, the benefits ofthe St. Lawrence and the Canada market. Our 
population continues to evince the same laudable enterprise and aptitude to 
conform to those precincts, which promise the greatest good that has always 
characterized them. 

We found apples in considerable abundance, and the wild plumb in great 
plenty and variety. The tame plumb ofthe best quality has been introduced 
into several gardens in this county, and has succeeded well. The last spring 
however involved us in the same calamity which extended itself to different 
parts of ihe United States, and few or none of our improved trees yielded any 
fruit. We found the vine doing well in several places, those however in the 
garden of Mr. Hepp, of Le Ray, exceeded for quality and quantity, any thing 
we had any idea of seeing in this county. We also saw large quantities of 
the foreign grape, imported last spring, a year ago, by our worthy president, 
growing finely and some having a number of clusters of grapes. 

And here we hope to be permitted to call the attention of the people of 
this county to the exertions of Mr. Hepp, in introducing into our county a 
very extensive collection of fruit and ornamental trees and shrubbery of al- 
most every description, and ofthe best quality, which he offers upon reason- 
able terms. 

Allow us also to say, that in planting orchards, the difference in the val- 
ue of grafted fruit over that that is natural, far exceeds the difference in price 
and ought to be preferred. The grafting the tame plumb and cherry on the 
wild has been practiced to some extent in this county and is found to succeed 
well. 

We could not award premiums to all the applicants, only six being at our 
disposal. To those who have not obtained a prize, we would offer the re- 
marks of the late Timothy Pickering Esq. whose vast mind did not fail to em- 
brace the subject of agriculture, and who was a conspicuous and zealous 
member of the agricultural society in the county in which he resided. He 
says "reflecting farmers, who shall become candidates for premiums, will be 
aware, that if their exertions should not obtain the honor of a prize, they will 
not be unrewarded ; as all the improvements they make, will either give them 



19 

jmme diate profits or add to the value of their farm. The direct object of pre- 
miums is not to excite merely trials of skill, but to add to the solid interests 
of farming , and he who shall show how we may add to that solid interest, 
will obtain the highest prize." The above remarks by Col. Pickering, al- 
though confined to farms, are equally applicable to all articles presented 
for premiums. 

The farm to which we have awarded the first premium, contains about 
two hundied and fifty acres of land, of which one hundred and eighty is un- 
der improvement, a large proportion of which is pasture and meadow, being 
what is commonly denominated a grazing farm. The farm is well watered, 
the buildings good and convenient, a strict attention is paid to cleanliness 
from weeds, and there is on this farm something like five hundred and eighty 
rods of board and cedar fence, well built and in good order. Every thing 
that indicates the good farmer is to be seen here, and the award of the first 
premium was unanimous. 

The farm to which we have awarded the second premium was taken up 
about twenty years ago, contains about one hundred and seventy five acres, 
one hundred and forty five acres being under improvement, a large share of 
which is occasionally under the plough. The proprietor of this farm is one 
of the many meritorious citizens of this county, who came here with small 
ineans, who by his own prudence and exertions has cleared his land and paid 
for it, and who now has every thing about him to make life pleasant. 

The farm to which the third, fourth and fifth premiums were awarded, 
were in excellent condition as to buildings, fences and freeness from weeds, 
and the third and fourth had superior orchards on them. 

The farm to which the sixth premium was awarded, contained rising of 
five hundred acres of land paid for, three hundred acres under improvement, 
principally made by the occupant and his family. He is a foreigner with 
very little knowledge of our language, and possessed little or no means to be- 
gin with, relying solely on his own exertions. On this farm there was much 
to praise and some things that verified the remark, that has. been frequently 
made here, that the farm was too large. The house was a stone one, well 
built and furnished, a number of spacious barns, and a great deal of substan- 
tial stone wall. A very extensive summer fallow, well done, some new or- 
charding, and a very large stock, but not so clean as it ought to be. 

The other farms we viewed, evinced that the owners were not unmindful 
of their true interests. A perseverance in the course thus begun, cannot fail 
to ensure the highest premiums of the society, but must confer lasting bene- 
fits on themselves and their posterity. 

The committee have awarded the first premium to George White, of Rut- 
land. 

The second to Curtis Golden, Pamelia. 

The third to James Wilson, Watertown. 

The fourth to Dorastus Waite, Champion. 

The fifth to Elisha Matteson, Hounsfield. 

The sixth to William Cooper, Le Ray. 

CALEB BURNHAM, EGBERT TEN EVCK, 
FLANATHAN MATTESON, ANSON SMITH, 
JOHN BROWN, ALBERT BRAYTON, 

Viewing Committee. 



20 

[NOTE B.] 

One of the firm of a house in Boston, that slaughters more beef and pork 
than any other in New-England, estimates the improvement in the quality 
of neat cattle, in the last ten or twelve years, at ten per cent. The cattle 
now driven to market, in consequence of a favorable change in the frame 
of the animal, will yield ten per cent, more flesh than those that came to us 
twelve years ago. This improvement, the gentleman, wholly and unhesi- 
tatingly, ascribes to the influence of our cattle shows. The house alluded 
to, slaughters from three to six thousand head of cattle in a year. Taking 
the average weight of each to be nine hundred pounds, it will be at once 
seen, that this improvement in the quality of neat stock will amount to no 
less a sum than from fifteen to thirty thousand dollars a }'ear on the beef 
brought into market by one house — Boston D. Advertiser. 



[NOTE C] 

" The apple, cherry, walnut, hickory-nut and plum, are found in abun- 
dance in almost all the forests of this country. Even the grape is found 
growing spontaneously, chiefly on the banks of our rivers, and often comes 
to maturity. 

" In quoting this last production of our country, far from me is the wish 
to raise in your minds, the expectation to cultivate it otherwise than in your 
gardens. Was the climate the most favorable to growth of the vine, as in 
my native country, in what they call the garden of France, and where I 
myself, cultivated with success the grape — I would guard you from making 
the attempt to have a vineyard. It requires all hand labor, and except one 
single month in the year, the hand of man must be constantly employed 
about the vine. The average price of hands employed to that culture is, in 
France, 18 cents, food included ; and here you could not procure the work 
done for less than three times that sum. In both countries the vine will re- 
quire pretty near an equal proportion of the application of the hand of man." 



[NOTE D.] 

The covering of the vines with small branches of evergreen, or if such 
cannot be got, with pease straw, is not only of a more easy and economical 
practice, but answer a better purpose. The great object is to protect 
them from the congealed raiu. Was it not for that, it would be a 
question whether any vine ought to be covered during the winter, for it is 
only the late frost in the spring which sometimes proves injurious to the 
vines, when the early vegetation exposes them. They are then uncovered — 
and if earth has been employed instead of vegetable substances, as recom- 
mended above, they are more tender, and of course, more liable to be in- 
jured. There is a division of opinion as to the propriety to cover the vines 
which are old enough to bear grapes. 1 range with them who think that 
those which are not covered at all, will be less affected by late frosts, and 
will give more fruit. 



21 
[NOTE E.] 

The general temperature of our winters is not more unfavorable to the 
rines, than the winters are generally in the great vineyard countries of 
France, and I will venture to say that we are likely to find them more favor- 
able. In France there is a great variety of weather — severe colds come 
often very rapidly after a number of rainy and moderate days. With us, 
the predominant and almost constant weather during our winters is a dry 
cold, with a clear sky. Instead of rains we have falls of snow, which cover 
the ground often during the space of three months: that snow very often 
furnishes a wholesome covering to our tenderest plants. The ground re- 
maining frozen till the spring, and our vegetation starting later, our plants 
are less liable to be injured by spring frosts ; but then the vegetation, se- 
conded by a warm sun, goes with a rapidity which will appear as magic to 
an European lately arrived in this part of the world. 



[NOTE F.] 

In the other method, the vines are generally planted three feet apart, 
and are not suffered to grow more than about four feet hjgh. 



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